I was listening to some old Gundamn episodes, and there was a point when it was mentioned that MAHQ's longevity is rare, thinking of all the other english-language Gundam websites that have gone by. Suddenly, I was taken down memory lane for a trip into... uh... memory?

Anyways, the remembrances, if you will, began flooding back into me. The names, page layouts, contents, it all buzzed in front of my eyes in a whirlwind of Wing-UC flame wars and bad HTML with good textual context.

So! I thought it'd be good to create a thread to reminisce about the Gundam sites of yore.

Me, I came into Gundam around 2000, simply through getting some fansub tapes of Wing back home in Argentina. I encountered online Gundam fandom, which introduced me to the myriad Gundam shows, and it was amazing to have such a huge, vibrant community.

I remember I used to frequent Gundam.com's boards a lot, which seemed to always have the most activity. The Gundam Project was frequently linked there for interesting background data, and for Mark Simmons' fantastic MS art and profiles (somewhat forgotten, but I fondly remember his character profiles). When fans needed reviews of the latest Gunpla, there was Newtype Asylum, which was chock full of model and show reviews. If I remember correctly, there was the Mecha Domain, from which Chris inherited the original batch of mecha info that now sits proudly on MAHQ. There were other modelling sites, of course, but their names elude me. While not strictly Gundam, there also used to be heika.net, the go-to place for Five Star Stories/Mamoru Nagano fandom (which nowadays finds its home in the GEARS Online forums).

I distinctly recall poring for hours over Newtype Asylum's gunpla reviews, discussing the upcoming SEED with other fans, and hoping to get to see G Gundam one day, as it was then airing in America but not here. A lot has changed since then in Gundam fandom, and a lot of the people running or participating in those old websites seem to have vanished from online fandom save for a few (unless, of course, you're all here with different names and I'm the eejit).

But, in any case, here's to the Gundam fansites of the past! Thank you for all your hard work, thanks for guiding me towards loving Gundam and understanding it better. Prosit!

MAHQ's really been the only mech board I've liked in a while, even if I don't post on here much. I used to bum around places like Junk Guild and SRWG but I butted heads with people too often and got banned and whatnot.

I remember those days, back when Gundam.com was full of amazing fanart ( I especially remember certain 3D mecha art that I've been looking for ever since the site closed down of a bunch of original Gundams with crazy weapons.) and Newtype Asylum was the greatest.

Gamespot did a highlight on the upcoming G-Saviour PS2 game around that time, and the preview video got me instantly hooked on it. I was so disappointed when it never came to America. After 9 years, I finally got my hands on a copy and it was every bit as awesome as I had hoped.

It seems like there are less and less Gundam fans around the West in general than there used to be, but I guess after Sunrise screwed up with 0079 they lost their chance to build any solid foothold over here. Bandai has record of poor marketing decisions over here as well, but I guess they really don't care.

BlackLion wrote:I remember those days, back when Gundam.com was full of amazing fanart ( I especially remember certain 3D mecha art that I've been looking for ever since the site closed down of a bunch of original Gundams with crazy weapons.) and Newtype Asylum was the greatest.

BlackLion wrote:I remember those days, back when Gundam.com was full of amazing fanart ( I especially remember certain 3D mecha art that I've been looking for ever since the site closed down of a bunch of original Gundams with crazy weapons.) and Newtype Asylum was the greatest.

When I first got into Gundam there was Gundam.com. I used to pour over the submitted model photos for HOURS. I remember there was a 1/100 space leo someone had made from the EW Tallgeese III.

Gundam Project was by far my favorite place to go for info on MS, Characters, Time lines, etc. I truly wish it was still up so I could have finished printing off all the profiles of characters and mecha. As it was, I was only interested in Wing and 08th MS Team when it shut down. If only it could have been left up for a year, even without updates. I remember when it closed some people had mentioned they had zipped the entire webpage, but they never got back with me on sending those files my way .

Gundamshop.com message boards was my main hub. I miss a lot of the guys from there, and most of them moved over to the Child of Mecha forums a couple years later. Jester was funny (he created the noob stick for the CoM mascot GM and was known for his "Jester Speed" at which he cranked out his Zeon MG kits known as the Royal Flush, King Dom was my favorite). Philgoodwin was a mod for both G-shop and CoM he was a good friend of mine, haven't talked to him a long while. Sniper Master from G-shop was a swell guy too. There was a modeler on the G-shop message boards that was just an amazing user of the airbrush! When the HGUC Dendro first came out he had painted his so well, the I-field generator was this spectacular blue! I can't remember who it was though p-trax, maybe? If not him the user name was similar.

Let's see, I frequented Crazy Probe's review blog for models and figures. Gunota was the place for news about merchandise... Yeah, all these great websites gone away... so sad.

Does Gundam.com still have the coming soon page up? *goes to check* Yeah, well a photo place holder, anyway... from 2009. Maybe the page will come back...

I never joined any online community until I came to Mecha Talk, but I do remember spending hours at Newtype Asylum, Gundam Project and Crazy Probe's model reviews. I remember reading tons of articles and model reviews, especially in NA's Fantoysia section.
Their demise only makes me appreciate Mecha Talk even more.

Internet came way late in my country (or it's just me living in small town). But anyway, the first time I can get access to the internet, I went straight to Gundam.com. Simply because...I don't know how to use search engines. I like Gundam, so I just typed gundam.com on address bar and hoped that there's site with that generic name. There was. I browsed through what looked like a pile of treasures to me. Too bad it's gone now.
Come to think about it, "gundam.com" is a very generic name, why Bandai/Sunrise not securing it? Useful for people that know nothing of search engine and typing anything-they-like.com on address bar and hoping something comes out.

Gundam Project was where I started in January 2001 - I think I still have those pics and profiles saved into a .doc file on a CD somewhere, I'll have to go digging next time I go back to my parents' house. I remember Gundam.com, although I never frequented there - it was too big, too crowded, and too confusing for me, a newbie to this whole "Internet" thing (I got it for the first time in summer 2000). I remember Newtype Asylum only by name - I can't recall the site itself at all. I used to visit Burke's Mecha Domain a ton back then, and remember being relieved when his database was preserved by FAHQ - has it really been nearly 9 years since the site changed names? Wow!

I remember Omega-Psi, where many Gundam Project refugees fled after the forums closed, and the subsequent name change to Gundamwatch (and, eventually, Animemech). Dunno whatever happened to that community post-2002 or so, although a quick check shows that both Gundamwatch and Animemech are gone now (Gundamwatch since about 2006 it seems, there's no record of Animemech I can find through Google).

It's kinda sad that the online Gundam community in the West seems to have shrunk so much since 11 years ago. But, I can always remain hopeful that in another 11 years MAHQ will still be here and, perhaps, the hub of a restored and burgeoning new Western fanbase. ^_^

Pkmatrix wrote:Dunno whatever happened to that community post-2002 or so, although a quick check shows that both Gundamwatch and Animemech are gone now (Gundamwatch since about 2006 it seems, there's no record of Animemech I can find through Google).

GundamWatch actually became the infamous GundamOfficial User Forums in April 2005, but somebody (I think GreyBear, its original owner/founder/important guy ) revived it not long after. That version lasted 'till March 2006, when it was succeeded by GundamEvolution (Same exact style, same staff, just a different name), which actually opened literally days before this place did (Fun time for me ). It closed its doors in (IIRC) April 2009.

Pkmatrix wrote:Dunno whatever happened to that community post-2002 or so, although a quick check shows that both Gundamwatch and Animemech are gone now (Gundamwatch since about 2006 it seems, there's no record of Animemech I can find through Google).

GundamWatch actually became the infamous GundamOfficial User Forums in April 2005, but somebody (I think GreyBear, its original owner/founder/important guy ) revived it not long after. That version lasted 'till March 2006, when it was succeeded by GundamEvolution (Same exact style, same staff, just a different name), which actually opened literally days before this place did (Fun time for me ). It closed its doors in (IIRC) April 2009.

Wow, I had no idea! I think I visited the GundamOfficial forum and Gundam Evolution once or twice, but had no clue it was really Gundamwatch. If I remember right, GrayBear was the second Admin of Gundamwatch - I believe the original Admin (when it was Omega-Psi and when it first became GW) was Botswana. I'm surprised the forum lasted as long as it did (especially considering the life expectancy of forums in general), but I'm still sad it closed down. *sigh*

As a former moderator for Gundamwatch, GOUF and later an administrator for Gundam Evolution I can say the reason they lasted as long as they did was because of the members. They created the community and sustained it through its various guises. As with all things though eventually people's interests change and move on to new and different things. It may not have been perfect but Gundamwatch and it's descendants served their purpose well.

The less said about GOUF the better. That place was a nightmare from the day it went live to the day it was unceremoniously shut down.

As for sites no longer with us. Personally I miss Gunota Headlines.

Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers

'Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security.' - Edmund Burke

@Pegasus: GOUF? Was that the attempt to do multiple forums for different genres under a single banner (Gundamwatch for Gundam, Animemech for mecha anime, and I think something else...)? If so, that was about the point I left the community. ^_^()

Pegasus wrote:As a former moderator for Gundamwatch, GOUF and later an administrator for Gundam Evolution I can say the reason they lasted as long as they did was because of the members.

I think that place had to be eventually doomed by GreyBear's tyrannical mantra of "It's all Gundam, it's all good" that would get shoved down people's throats as some forced peace. I understand the point of what they were trying to do, but it was still very misguiding and off putting for people. You can't force people to not make the dreaded "comparisons" they would try to stamp out with that phrase.

"What did catch my eye, however, was a podcast named Gundamn!. At first I thought it was a podcast about firearms and [rednecks] discussing their collection, but after looking at the episode titles I was sold." - Xhavalor

Pkmatrix wrote:@Pegasus: GOUF? Was that the attempt to do multiple forums for different genres under a single banner (Gundamwatch for Gundam, Animemech for mecha anime, and I think something else...)? If so, that was about the point I left the community. ^_^()

GOUF was the Gundam Official User Forums. The one set up by Bandai but which they asked us to run and then pulled the rug from under our feet not long after.

There was also a time when we ran three forums at once. Gundamwatch, Animemech and Omega Psi. As an experiment it didn't really work which is why they eventually folded back into Gundamwatch.

Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers

'Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security.' - Edmund Burke

Chris wrote:I think that place had to be eventually doomed by GreyBear's tyrannical mantra of "It's all Gundam, it's all good" that would get shoved down people's throats as some forced peace. I understand the point of what they were trying to do, but it was still very misguiding and off putting for people. You can't force people to not make the dreaded "comparisons" they would try to stamp out with that phrase.

I think that approach was a reaction (perhaps an overreaction?) to the... well, let's say "boisterous" atmosphere of discussion on Gundam.com and The Gundam Project before both of those forums shut down at Gundam Watch (in whatever incarnation and under whatever management was in place at the time) became the go-to forum for the English-speaking Gundam forum.

There were some deeply unpleasant sides to G.com and TGP (entrenched cliques, a contemptuous and dismissive attitude towards newbies, the use of 'versus' threads to pillory whoever happened to favour a less-popular suit or character) and whether or not a mistake was made in how that was eventually handled, I'm not going to fault anyone for doing their best to make sure that 'refugees' from those two sites didn't bring that mess with them turn their own forums into a mirror of the worst of the old-school Gundam fandom.